User:NiksonSham/Gulnara Abikeeva

Gulnara Oiratovna Abikeeva (Гүлнар Ойратқызы Әбікеева, born. 12 January 1962, Almaty) — Kazakh film scholar and film critic, president of the Association of Film Critics of Kazakhstan. Participant of the international film festival movement, art-director of «Eurasia» Film Festival (2005—2013). Author of several books on the Cinema of Kazakhstan and Central Asia. PhD in Art Critisim (2010).

Biography
Was born in 1962 in Almaty. In 1984 graduated from the Film Studies department at Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (Lydia Zaytsevastudio), where, in 1990, also defended her master thesis: «Interaction between the Cultures of the West and of the East in World Cinema Process».

After returning to Almaty, she headed the magazine "Asia-kino" (1992—1994), participated in the creation of television programmes about cinema (1994—1996), taught history and theory of cinematography in Kazakh National Academy of Arts (1996—2001). Since 1997 she has been the coordinator of the "Culture and Art" programme of the «Soros-Kazakhstan International Fund».

As a Fulbright Scholar in 2001—2002, she taught a series of lectures at Bowdoin College (together with Professor Jane Knox-Woina) and a special course for graduate students at the University of Pittsburgh on cinematography and culture of Central Asia. Also held lectures at Harvard, Yale (2002), Stanford (2004) and Tufts University (2007). In 2010, she defended her doctoral dissertation "Images of a family in Central Asian Cinema in the context of the formation of cultural identity in the region" at VGIK in Moscow. It was the first post-soviet dissertation in VGIK since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

From 2005 to 2013 she was an art director of the «Eurasia» International Film Festival in Almaty. As a member of the International Association of Film Critics and of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC), she has served on the jury of critics at international film festivals in Anapa, Berlin, Wiesbaden, Karlovy Vary, Cottbus, Oberhausen, etc.

She has publications on the subject of cinema in Kazakh and the international press. She wrote reviews of Central Asian cinematographies for the International Film Guide yearbook; created articles for the FIPRESCI website, the British online magazine KinoKultura (prepared, among others, a special issue on Central Asian cinema ), the Indian film magazine Cinemaya, Russian «Iskusstvo Kino» and «Kinoforum». She is an author of several books, dedicated to the cinematography of Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The book «Cinema of Central Asia (1990—2001)» was awarded by «Slon» diploma of the Russian Guild of Film Critics (2001). For the book "Nation-building in Kazakhstan and other countries of Central Asia and how it is reflected in cinematography", she was awarded the "Kulager" award (2007) by the Union of Cinematographers of Kazakhstan as the author of the year's best work in a field of cinema studies.

Art preferences
In 2012, she took part in a survey about the greatest films in history that Sight & Sound magazine conducts every ten years. While commenting on her choice, she explained that the most attractive thing in cinema for her is the expression of humanity. Chaplin for her symbolizes the birth of cinematography, while Italian neorealism is the foundation of cinema as an art. She also mentioned films that reflect the mixing of Eastern and Western cultures ("Rashomon", "ЕруMatrix") and dialogue of civilizations ("Land of the Fathers"). Her full list of the best films looks like this (in alphabetical order) :
 * Beshkempir (1998, Aktan Arym Kubat)
 * Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003, Kim Ki-duk)
 * Gabbeh (film) (1996, Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
 * The Land of Fathers (1966, Shaken Aimanov)
 * Wild Strawberries (film) (1957, Ernst Ingmar Bergman)
 * The Matrix (1999, The Wachowskis)
 * Modern Times (1936, Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin)
 * Nights of Cabiria (1957, Federico Fellini)
 * Solaris (1972, Andrei Tarkovsky)
 * Rashomon (1950, Akira Kurosawa)

Honours

 * Medal «For work excellence» (Kazakhstan) (2011)
 * Сhevalier of Order of Arts and Letters (2016)